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Introduction: Digital History in African Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2020

Jennifer Hart
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Abstract

This brief introduction to a special section on Digital History in African Studies situates three articles on recent digital humanities initiatives among African historians within the broader histories of the use of digital methodologies in the study of Africa. In particular, it highlights the way that Africanist digital scholarship sits at the intersection of digital historical representation, community engagement, and academic research. While Africanist digital history builds on the work of a much broader digital humanities community, historians of Africa also draw on their discipline’s long history of methodological innovation to raise important questions about the potential contributions and limitations of digital technologies in academic research.

Résumé

Résumé

Cette courte introduction à cette section spéciale porte sur la place de l’histoire numérique dans les études africaines et situe les trois articles parmi les initiatives récentes en humanités numériques adoptées par les historiens de l’Afrique qui utilisent des méthodologies numériques pour l’étude de l’Afrique. Cette introduction souligne tout particulièrement la façon dont le travail scientifique numérique sur l’Afrique se situe à l’intersection de la représentation historique et numérique, de l’engagement des communautés étudiées et de la recherche universitaire. Alors que l’histoire numérique africaniste s’appuie sur le travail d’une communauté des humanités numériques beaucoup plus large, les historiens de l’Afrique s’appuient également sur la longue histoire d’innovation méthodologique de leur discipline pour soulever des questions importantes sur les contributions et les limites potentielles des technologies numériques dans la recherche universitaire.

Type
Digital History
Information
History in Africa , Volume 47 , June 2020 , pp. 269 - 274
Copyright
© African Studies Association, 2020

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